Kate Heddleston

In the past few decades, web applications have become the backbone of much of the technology industry. Hosting tools like Amazon Web Services allow technology companies to build web applications on an unprecedented scale. While these tools give developers more power, it also allows people to build more and more complicated web applications that require multitudes of developers to build, deploy, monitor, and maintain.

As developer tools increase in power, the systems we’re able to build do too. However, with great power comes great...complexity, and the systems we build today are more complex than ever before. This talk is about reducing the complexity of your web infrastructure, and making it easier for developers on your team to learn, use, and manage your infrastructure.

This talk focuses on something we don't talk about much in the engineering community: infrastructure usability. Usable infrastructure is something that reduces developer errors, encourages correct behavior, and allows engineers to move quickly without having to worry about managing a complex infrastructure that requires specialized training.

People should leave with an understanding of three things: what is usability, why it is important for web infrastructure, and how can they go about building usable infrastructure tools that are scalable throughout larger teams.